Thymine Oxetanes as Charge Traps for Chemical Monitoring of Nucleic Acid Mediated Transfer of Excess Electrons

Detecting electrons migrating: When incorporated into nucleic acids, thymine oxetanes make it possible to monitor excess-electron transfer with remarkably high quantum yields owing to their favorable redox potentials and fast cycloreversion (see scheme; PNA=peptide nucleic acid). In a first experiment, the distance dependence of the charge transfer was investigated and found to be typical for a hopping mechanism.